A report by Ian Rapoport of NFL Media on Sunday morning said that the Dolphins had worked out a deal to trade defensive lineman Calais Campbell to the Ravens, but that it did not go through because of Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel’s unhappiness with dealing Campbell.
McDaniel confirmed that things played out that way after beating the Patriots 34-15. McDaniel said he threw “an adult temper tantrum” when presented with the idea and said the interest in his services was a sign of just how valuable Campbell is as a player.
“It speaks to how he’s playing,” McDaniel said, via a transcript from the team. “It speaks to what he means to the team, that teams would be willing to do that, and there was some competition for that. But yeah, my job is to speak on behalf of what’s the best thing for the 2024 Dolphins. I’m just fortunate to work in an organization where myself and the GM can be transparent and work together, and he didn’t want to see any more adult temper tantrums.”
Campbell had one tackle on Sunday and he has 34 tackles and four sacks in his first year with the surging Dolphins.
Veteran safety Eddie Jackson’s run with the Ravens came to an end on Saturday.
The Ravens announced that they waived Jackson ahead of their Monday night game against the Chargers. They signed linebacker Kristian Welch to the active roster in a corresponding move.
Jackson’s departure comes a week after the Ravens left him at home for their road game against the Steelers. It was the second time in three weeks that Jackson was inactive and head coach John Harbaugh declined to discuss the reason for scratching him, but Jackson had fallen behind other safeties in recent weeks.
“I really don’t have anything to say about those personnel decisions that get made, or why they get made,” Harbaugh said, via the team’s website. “Some of those things are just in-house conversations that we have, and it stops there.”
Jackson played nine games and made four starts for Baltimore. He had 30 tackles in those appearances and he made 459 in his seven seasons with the Bears.
The Giants benched quarterback Daniel Jones for business reasons, not for football reasons. And the Giants allowed personal feelings to interfere with what would have been the best business decision — prevent him from going elsewhere and proving the Giants wrong, Saquon-style.
But they’re going to waive him. Even though they haven’t done it, the owner has said it’s going to happen. (The reason for the delay isn’t clear, but it’s clearly coming.)
While many have adopted the narrative that Jones stinks, he doesn’t. He hasn’t. He helped lead the Giants to the playoffs in 2022. With Jones at the helm, the Giants beat the Vikings in Minnesota in the wild-card round. His struggles have typically traced to subpar offensive line play.
Once he’s released and clears waivers (he absolutely will), Jones will be free to sign with any team at any time. He’ll first need to ask whether to join a team now or wait.
Waiting would allow Jones to get a better feel for who the real contenders will be — and it might give him a chance to play sooner than later, if a starter gets injured elsewhere.
Regardless, consider the backup situations for the various contenders and ask whether a guy who earned a contract that paid $40 million per year and won a playoff game would be better than the current No. 2.
Buffalo: Mitch Trubisky. (Probably.)
Miami: Skylar Thompson/Tyler Huntley. (Yes.)
Baltimore: Josh Johnson. (Yes.)
Pittsburgh: Justin Fields. (Yes, but they seem to be committed to Fields as current backup and potential future starter.)
Houston: Davis Mills. (Yes.)
Kansas City: Carson Wentz. (Probably.)
L.A. Chargers: Easton Stick. (Yes.)
Denver: Jarrett Stidham. (Yes.)
Philadelphia: Kenny Pickett. (Yes.)
Washington: Marcus Mariota. (Probably.)
Detroit: Hendon Hooker. (Yes.)
Minnesota: Nick Mullens. (Yes.)
Green Bay: Malik Willis. (Yes, although Willis has played well this year.)
Atlanta: Michael Penix Jr. (Yes, but they likely wouldn’t do it.)
Tampa Bay: Kyle Trask. (Yes.)
Arizona: Clayton Tune. (Yes.)
Seattle: Sam Howell. (Yes.)
San Francisco: Brandon Allen. (Yes.)
L.A. Rams: Jimmy Garoppolo. (Probably.)
So, yes, someone who is currently contending should want Jones. Jones can afford to take his time. To wait for a clear shot to potentially contribute on a team that has the ability to go deep into the playoffs.
And maybe to wait to see if/when a starter gets injured and an immediate need arises for Jones to play, sooner than later.
Sometimes, transparency doesn’t show up at all. Sometimes, it just takes a little while.
In conjunction with our effort to understand the failure to penalize Browns quarterback Jameis Winston for intentional grounding on Thursday night in Cleveland, we’ve inadvertently finagled an admission from the league that the rule wasn’t properly applied in Week 3, during the Baltimore-Dallas game.
Second quarter. Cowboys have the ball on their own seven, facing third and 10. Quarterback Dak Prescott drops back into the end zone. As he’s about to be sacked for a safety, he throws the ball to offensive lineman Tyler Smith.
The Cowboys weren’t penalized for intentional grounding, even though Smith wasn’t an eligible receiver on the play. The officials called Smith for illegal touching, and the Ravens were told after the fact that the illegal touch essentially nullified intentional grounding.
“They said that it’s not intentional grounding because somebody caught it, even though it’s an illegal receiver that caught it, which is a penalty,” coach John Harbaugh told reporters during the week after the game. “So basically they get rewarded for having a penalty there, you know? That’s kind of probably not what they want by the rule. So we’ll see. Maybe it’s a loophole in the rule. I’m not sure. Something they’ll probably look at. But because a receiver caught it, you can’t call intentional grounding. Even though it’s an illegal receiver and there’s no eligible receiver in the area. Which would constitute grounding. So . . . that’s what he explained to me.”
The issue came up again because, at first blush, that same loophole seemed to save Winston from a grounding call. He threw the ball to an ineligible receiver, who was called for illegal touching.
That’s why we posted this tweet at the time; we thought the ruling from Ravens-Cowboys was being applied again. But then the conversation shifted to the question of whether Winston was hit while he was throwing, whether the hit significantly affected the throw, whether the throw was being made in the direction of an eligible receiver before Winston was hit.
All the league had to say, in order to short-circuit the entire conversation, was that illegal touching supersedes intentional grounding. Like it did in the Ravens-Cowboys game.
So we asked whether that same twist was applied in Steelers-Browns. Said the league: “In the Baltimore-Dallas game, there was not judged to be an eligible receiver in the area. It was an incorrect application of the rule, as caught by an ineligible player or not, that would be intentional grounding if there was no eligible receiver in the area.”
Bottom line? There’s no ineligible-receiver loophole for intentional grounding. Even if there was nine weeks ago in Dallas, that’s not how the grounding rule is supposed to be interpreted.
It will be brother vs. brother on Monday night when John Harbaugh brings his Ravens team to Los Angeles to face Jim Harbaugh’s Chargers.
In his Thursday press conference, John Harbaugh was peppered with questions about his brother and the matchup, particularly given the numerous connections between the two teams. John noted he couldn’t recall another situation where an opponent’s offensive and defensive coordinator had worked for him in the past — and that’s on top of coaching against his brother.
Given all that, Jim recently said watching the Ravens on tape is a little like looking in a mirror. John agreed with the sentiment.
“Yes, all of it. The culture, the way things are done, how [the Chargers] play, certainly, [and] the schemes [are] very similar,” John Harbaugh said on Thursday. “The schemes are, in a lot of ways not exactly the same, but in a lot of ways mirror images — the people coaching [and] a lot of the guys playing.
“But with that, it’s two different football teams. It’s two teams squaring off in a really important game, and that’s what it’s really going to be about. It’s going to be about the guys out there playing the game.”
Still, John conceded Monday night will be different than other games.
“[W]e know the schemes pretty much, but there will be wrinkles, there will be ideas,” John Harbaugh said. “It’s kind of the old [saying], ‘They know what we know that we know that they know that we know that they know what we know.’ With that, there will be wrinkles, I’m sure.
“It’s going to come down in the end to the players — just to emphasize that. All the scheme stuff is important, but most important is how the game is played and who plays the best football game out there in terms of making the plays and playing disciplined football and playing physical football and blocking and tackling and all of those things. It’s a players’ game. The players will be determining the outcome of it.”
As always, though, John was extremely complimentary of his brother, saying Jim “is one of the best coaches of this generation, no question.”
“Even if he weren’t my brother, I would say the same thing,” John Harbaugh said. “We have our work cut out for us; we have to travel across the country and play on Monday Night Football.”
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is not on the injury report to start the practice week.
Jackson was not on last week’s injury report until the second practice day of the week when he was limited with a knee issue and rest. He has had some practice time off in recent weeks but has not missed a start.
Linebacker Roquan Smith (hamstring) is among five players who didn’t practice Thursday as the Ravens began their work week getting ready for Monday Night Football.
Coach John Harbaugh said, via Jeff Zrebiec of TheAthletic.com, that Smith is “working toward the game” and “has not been ruled out by any stretch.”
Wide receiver Nelson Agholor (illness), defensive tackle Travis Jones (ankle), safety Sanoussi Kane (ankle) and cornerback Arthur Maulet (calf) also missed Thursday’s session.
Running back Justice Hill (concussion) was limited.
Safety Kyle Hamilton (neck) and outside linebacker Odafe Oweh (neck) were full participants.
Netflix is on notice. More importantly, the NFL is, too.
With four weeks and six days to go until Netflix hosts a pair of NFL games on Christmas day, the streaming giant knows that Friday night’s fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson was a gigantic mess. The NFL knows it, too.
And while the NFL is saying all the right things (what else would they do?), here’s hoping the powers-that-be are preparing an emergency option in the event the Netflix streams ends up (technical term) shitting the bed on December 25.
The answer seems obvious. CBS is producing both games for Netflix. So if the Netflix stream ends up sputtering or buffering or otherwise not looking and working like it should, how hard would it be to flip a switch and divert the CBS production to CBS affiliates?
Frankly, we all should expect it — if not demand it. This isn’t the time to experiment. It isn’t the time to settle for an experience less than the one we’re all used to.
If the goal on Christmas was to stream the games, the games could have been sold to Amazon, which already has the infrastructure in place. Instead, the NFL wanted to create a seat at the table for a partner that is 0-for-1 when it comes to successfully streaming high-profile sporting events.
Really, how hard can it be to have CBS on standby? If Netflix is overloaded, send the signal to CBS and give the domestic audience an option. As the Netflix audience shrinks, the Netflix experience potentially improves.
So, as Netflix spends its time preparing to shore up its ability to deliver Chiefs-Steelers and Ravens-Texans, the NFL should install a kill switch. A dump button. A break-glass-in-event-of-emergency alarm.
If Netflix can’t deliver an acceptable NFL experience, the NFL needs to insist — on the fly — that the usual NFL experience will be delivered by CBS.
For the first time since Super Bowl XLVII, the Harbaugh brothers will be facing each other. Ravens at Chargers. Monday Night Football.
On Wednesday, Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh talked about the family angle to the fairly important game.
“I’m sure he doesn’t want to make it about him,” Jim said about John, via NFL.com. “I don’t want to make it about me. It is what it is. Big game, for sure. Two teams having at it.”
The Ravens and 49ers had at it nearly 12 years ago. John won; he’s 2-0 against Jim.
“At the time, that was tough,” Jim said. “After some time and reflection went by, it’s my brother, it’s my best friend. Really proud of him. Really happy for his success. It was earned.”
Now, Jim gets a chance to meet John again. And because they’re in the same conference, they could have a rematch in January.
The inability of Netflix to deliver an acceptable and consistent experience during the Jake Paul real-world boxing fantasy camp featuring Mike Tyson has already spawned litigation.
Via multiple reports, at least two class actions have already been filed by customers seeking compensation for Netflix’s failure to deliver the promised product.
It’s relevant to the NFL for two reasons. First, if a similar problem happens with one or both of the Christmas games to be streamed by Netflix five weeks from today, Netflix and the NFL could face legal scrutiny. Especially since the NFL now has reason to know that Netflix might not be able to accomplish the task of delivering the games to viewers.
Second, it shows how easy it is for class-action lawsuits to be filed. The NFL faces the constant risk of such claims as a result of wagers gone bad due to bad calls that the NFL has failed to reasonably eradicate, or because of the failure of teams to disclose injury information.
As to the Paul-Tyson fight, separate liability could emerge for similar reasons. Anyone who bet on Paul to win by KO or TKO could craft a lawsuit based on this comment from Paul, when asked whether he took his foot off the gas during the third round: “Yeah, definitely. Definitely a bit. I wanted to give the fans a show, but I didn’t want to hurt someone that didn’t need to be hurt.”
Hell, he’s admitting it. Admitting that he didn’t go all out. Admitting that he passed on a chance to knock Tyson out.
Why would Paul do it? By not knocking out or otherwise embarrassing the 58-year-old fighter who looked every minute of his age, Paul could fight more over-the-hill boxers — and make a bunch of money for doing it. Carry them, don’t humiliate them, and keep doing it. Again. And again. And again.
Until, of course, the audience gets wise to it. But if the audience isn’t wise to it already, the audience never will be.
Ravens kicker Justin Tucker missed two field goals in the first half of last Sunday’s loss to the Steelers and he’s now missed seven kicks over the course of the entire season, which has led some to wonder if one of the league’s best all-time kickers has lost it.
The Ravens have not wavered in their support for Tucker, however, and Tucker believes that he’ll be able to get himself back on track. Tucker’s misses have gone to the left and he said on Wednesday that he was cognizant of changing his aiming point on a 54-yard field goal in the second half. That kick went in and Tucker thinks he just has to keep doing the same thing.
“The adjustment is pretty clear,” Tucker said, via Jeff Zrebiec of TheAthletic.com. “I just need to make a point to not let the ball go left.”
Tucker’s track record buys him time to show that he can adjust, but the Ravens may have to revisit the limit to their faith in him if things aren’t as clear as the kicker makes them sound.
